3/23/2016
Bylaws of the EDF Event Series
Abstract This document defines the rules, procedures, and sustainability
concept of the EDF Event Series.
Sören Auer & Dieter Fensel (Chief Editors)
Disclaimer: These rules are defined by the EDF steering committee and as such are subject to periodic
refinement. This version is of July 24th, 2012.
Contents
1 Mission ............................................................................................................................. 3
2 Structure of the conference .............................................................................................. 4
2.1 Chairs......................................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Organization Committee ........................................................................................... 5
2.3 Programme Committee members .............................................................................. 5
2.4 Invited speakers ......................................................................................................... 7
2.5 Local Host Organization............................................................................................ 7
3. EDF Steering Committee ................................................................................................ 8
3.1 Tasks of the Steering Committee............................................................................... 8
3.2 Procedures of the Steering Committee ...................................................................... 8
3.3 Members of the Steering Committee ......................................................................... 9
3.4 Decision Procedure of the Steering Committee ........................................................ 9
3.5 Chairs of the Steering Committee ............................................................................. 9
4. Operational aspects ....................................................................................................... 11
4.1 Financial Organization of the Conference ............................................................... 11
5. Liabilities ...................................................................................................................... 13
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1 Mission
The European Data Forum (EDF) series is a yearly event on social, economic, research,
engineering, and scientific topics centered on the arising European data-driven economy.
Currently the conference encompasses major areas such as:

Big data which are large volumes of data that require new engineering and
scientific approaches to meaningful deal with these volume.

Public Open data supporting decision making and transparency.

Linked Data as a universal data integration platform.

Value generated from data, i.e., providing methods and tools that support a datadriven economy.
Moreover, each event will define a specific focus and theme. These are defined in a
mission report written by the event chairs and approved by the steering committee.
A major focus of the event series is to raise issues that are of interest to European SMEs,
however, EDF also aims to provide a meeting place where they network with colleagues
from research, policy making, societal initiatives and from large industry.
EDF events are envisioned to run under the umbrella of the respective EU presidency.
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2 Structure of the conference
Here we define the overall structure and elements of a single EDF event.
2.1 Chairs
Each event has two Chairs to oversee all activities of a specific EDF event. They must be
a senior1 person with an outstanding scientific, engineering, or entrepreneur track record
and an appropriate level of organizational skills. The Chairs have overall responsibility
for all matters. As such, the Chairs report directly to the Steering Committee through their
co-chairs or designate on the planning, progress, operation, and final results of the event.
The Chairs select/propose all other committee members of an EDF event (see
more details in the following).
They ensure (in cooperation with the local host) the support of the particular EDF
event through the EU presidency.
The Chairs submit the mission report which defines:




The specific theme of the upcoming event,
Precise data and location of the event,
An organization committee, and
A budget plan.
A preliminary event report should be issued and verbally presented to the
Steering Committee during its meeting at the event. In this report, the Chairs should give
a synopsis of the attendance, program quality, organization, and explain significant
variations with respect to the plans and expectations. A preliminary written financial
report must be provided.
The Chairs must submit a written final event report to the Steering Committee
within three (3) months after the event has been held. It should cover the previously
mentioned categories and report on all experiences and recommendations useful for
organizers of future conferences. The event report is published on the EDF web site.
1
We use senior in this context as synonym for being well-respected.
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The Chairs are selected by the Steering Committee.
2.2 Organization Committee
The program of the event is prepared by the Chairs with the help of the Organization
Committee.
The Organization Committee should cover the various aspects (big, open, linked,
public, etc.) and roles. i.e., stake holders (science, engineering, politics, societal
initiatives, small business, large business, etc.), that are involved in the arising data
economy.
Some of its member may have a specific role such as chairing:

Hackathons,

Industrial exhibitions,

Local Organization,

Meta Data,

Poster sessions,

Publicity2, or

Sponsorship.
The Organization Committee members are proposed by the Chairs and approved
by the Steering Committee.
2.3 Programme Committee members
The task of PC Members (PCMs) is to assemble an attractive programme for the EDF.
Other than in purely scientific events in the EDF PCMs should engage more actively in
attracting diverse, high quality talk proposals and engaging side-events focused on the
2
Good practice is here to have two members, one focussed on the global and one
focussed on the local dissemination aspect.
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EDF stakeholder communities. Depending on the prospective size of the event the PCMs
can overlap with the Organizational Committee members. PCMs should have a
significant scientific, technological, entrepreneurial or application-/community-oriented
track record in their respective areas and be willing and committed to actively outreach to
potential speakers and multipliers as well as carefully and fairly evaluate the quality and
potential impact of the submitted talk proposals, papers and other programme elements.
PC Members (PCMs) are selected by the Chairs.
The Chairs should provide information about the mission of the event (e.g.,
broadening, thematic focus), policies of talk proposal and paper evaluation, the
scheduling of PC work (especially the dates for talk proposals and papers to be available
for reviewing, timeframe for e-mail or Web-based discussion of controversial or
otherwise specific talks/papers, and the PC meeting date), and other operational
procedures (e.g., handling of PC submissions) to PC candidates together with the
invitation for serving on the PC.
PC members must agree that they will do their best to implement the EDF
mission and policies. PC members must also agree that they have sufficient capacity to
perform all the duties required for establishing an attractive EDF program.
The Chairs should select the members of their PCMs based on personal
knowledge or strong recommendations on the candidates:



Technical competence on the important areas to be covered,
Ability to handle submissions beyond their core areas of expertise,
Performance in terms of responsiveness and thoroughness, and
Ethical integrity with regard to dedicating time to the event, keeping the selection
process confidential, fairness, etc.
The following recommendations are made regarding the selection of PC members
(not in order of priority):



Select people who are not over-committed and who are capable and willing to
perform a high quality selection/reviewing job on time.
Try to achieve a good gender and geographical distribution. PC members are
excellent channels to advertise the conference and to solicit talks,
Try to balance between scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs as well as SMEs,
large companies, NGOs, public sector, etc.,
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

Select people who have a good research, technology community or application
record and an international recognition in areas related to EDF, and
Try to involve “new faces”. One of the factors for the success of the EDF
conference series is its explicit policy to always try to bring new capable persons
into the community;3
2.4 Invited speakers
The main track of the conference should include 2-4 keynote talks by invited speakers.
There should additionally be a slot for a keynote from the head of the data value chain
unit.
2.5 Local Host Organization
There must be a Local Host Organization that together with the Chairs establishes the
local arrangements for the conference. She is selected by the Steering Committee.
3
It is recommended to use new media channels for this search and to allow selfsolicitation.
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3. EDF Steering Committee
The EDF Steering Committee acts as board of the EDF event series.
3.1 Tasks of the Steering Committee
For each conference the Steering Committee:
1. Reviews the current EDF event,
2. Reviews the areas of the EDF series,
3. Discusses strategic conclusions to be drawn for future events based on the
outcomes of (1) and (2),
4. Selects the Chairs of the next event, and
5. Approves location, time, local host organization, mission, organization
committee, and budget plan of the next EDF event.4
3.2 Procedures of the Steering Committee
The format of the work of the Steering Committee is defined as following:

A face-to-face meeting during the EDF event performing Task 1-4. Task 1-3
should provide a general point of reference for the mission and outline of the up
following EDF event. In addition, a frame for the time and location of the next
event should be defined.

A phone conference at latest 2 months after the event with the goal to discuss,
refine, and approve the mission document for the upcoming event (Task 5).
4
With the restriction that the event should be hosted yearly in the country that
respecitvely holds the EU presidency.
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
A phone conference 2-3 months before the event to monitor the progress. (Task 1)
and recommend actions if needed. A need for additional follow-up phone
conferences may be derived from it.
3.3 Members of the Steering Committee
The EDF Steering Committee consists of:

The Chairs of each of the last four EDF events. Currently these are Sören Auer,
Dieter Fensel, Michael Hausenblas, and Elena Simperl.

The head of the data value chain unit. This is Marta Nagy-Rothengass. She also
appoints an additional representative of her unit. Currently this is Francesco
Barbato.

Two Co-Chairs of the EDF Steering Committee who are proposed by the head of
unit and approved by the majority of the steering committee.5

Further members selected by the EDF Steering Committee. Currently this is
Martin Kaltenböck.
3.4 Decision Procedure of the Steering Committee
Decisions are taken with majority of all votes that are not abstentions.
3.5 Chairs of the Steering Committee
The Chairs of the EDF Steering Committee:

Lead the agenda of the f2f meetings during the EDF event,

Organize and chair phone conferences,
5
Auxiliarilly, Sören Auer and Dieter Fensel (Chairs of the first EDF event) act in this
role.
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
Represent the EDF Steering Committee with regard to external requests, and

Invite external experts to participate as guests in discussions of the EDF Steering
Committee (without voting rights).
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4. Operational aspects
Here we specify further important details of running an EDF event.
4.1 Financial Organization of the Conference
In general, the Chairs and the Local Host must agree on the financial plan and the budget
management process and need to request approval for their plan by the Steering
Committee. This financial plan should include:
 Contributions by the Local Host organization (conference location, catering, and
local on-site conference organization support),
 Industry sponsoring,
 Travelling support for invited speakers,
 Travelling grants for participants from SMEs6, and
 EU project support (e.g., PlanetData, LOD2, projects from current or future calls,
administrated by the data value chain unit) and conference fees (100 Euro
maximum).
The budget management could be centralized (either by the Chairs or Local Host
Organizations) or it could be decentralized. An example for a decentralized budget
management plan is provided below.
Example for a decentralized budget management plan.
§1 The Local Host should cover the local organization costs. This includes
conference location, catering, and local on-site conference organization support.
She is invited to acquire (local) sponsorship to cover these costs. The related
DIRECT costs (including labor) could be between 10 and 20K€. Notice that she
can also acquire one or several European projects as sponsors.
§2 The organizations that provide the Chairs should cover the general event
management and dissemination costs (possible in cooperation with a dissemination
chair and his/her organization and an involvement of the local organizer). This may
be up to 6PM and 10K€ on video, video lectures, and press clips.
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Or SMEs in the mature process of foundation.
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§3 The event charges a lump sum as conference fees that are used to finance the
conference dinner. For successful applicants of SME travel support the conference
fee could be waived.
§4 EU projects and further sponsors are going to pay for:
 Key notes and invited speaker. 5-10K€ DIRECT costs (depends on number and
traveling costs). PlanetData is offering to provide this service for 2013 and
2014. These costs are directly managed by this sponsor.
 Traveling grants for SME conference participants. 20 times 500€ = 10K€ direct
costs should be covered by a sponsorship package. However, projects may
volunteer for more packages. Using a first-in-first-out approach, applications
and travel cost reimbursement should be directly managed by these projects.
Regarding EDF2013, the project LOD2 and several other new initiatives can
be taken into account as sponsors. It is nevertheless advisable to seek out
additional and new initiatives supporting the event.
§5 Members of the Organization Committees should reserve significant amounts of
their time to fulfill all their tasks properly. They also should ensure proper
encouragement for this from their employing institutes plus additional technical,
financial, and management support of them if required. The Chairs of the EDF
steering committee are willing to support this through personal communication if
needed.
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5. Liabilities
Conference officials should be aware that they may become individually liable in case of
violation of copyright laws, claims of plagiarism, and claims of slander, errors-andomissions, trip-and-fall accidents, selection of unsafe carriers, to name the major risks.
The officials are strongly advised to minimize their risks by taking an aggressive
problem-prevention policy. This includes shifting the burden to authors by requiring them
to sign copyright statements and transfer agreements; to participants by signing
disclaimers on registration; by employing external organizations for providing all services
not directly connected to running the conference, such as hotel reservation agencies or
travel agencies, have these organizations assume responsibility for all corresponding
risks, and place a corresponding disclaimer in the conference announcements; by having
the organization providing and running the conference venue assume the risks connected
with the conference locale.
The following disclaimer should be included in all conference publications: “Neither the
Organizing Committee of an EDF conference nor the Steering Committee of the EDF
conference series are liable for any loss or damage arising from the activities of this
particular conference as exercised by its agents: conference organizers, carriers,
proceedings, publications and programme committee.”
Officials must make sure that liability insurance is available to them to cover the
remaining risks, and in particular to persons who are authorized to issue conference
funds.
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